Seton Hall University
Creighton
Pirates Handle Creighton 79-74 on Fox Sports 1
12/3/2014 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
OMAHA, NEB. - Reigning BIG EAST Player of the Week Daisha Simmons (Jersey City, N.J.) scored a game-high 23 points to lead four players in double figures as the Seton Hall University women's basketball team picked up a 79-74 win at Creighton University in its BIG EAST opener in a nationally broadcast game on Fox Sports 1 Wednesday night at D.J. Sokol Arena.
Simmons scored 17 points in the second half and finished the game shooting 9-for-18 from the field, filling out the stat sheet with a team-high eight assists, a career-high seven steals and six rebounds.
Seton Hall improves to 6-1 overall and 1-0 in the BIG EAST, pushing its current winning streak to five in a row for the first time since December 2008.
The Pirates were on fire from 3-point range, shooting 10-for-21 from deep as a team with Ka-Deidre Simmons (Newark, N.J.) scoring 18 points while tying a career-high with three 3-pointers, and Janee Johnson (Matthews, N.C.) tied her career-high of 16 points, knocking down a career-best four shots from long range. Entering the season she had hit just two 3-pointers in her career, she had four on Wednesday night and now has 11 this season, which ranks second on the team.
Seton Hall led by as many as 10 points in the first half but Creighton used a 15-8 run late in the period to pull within three before Johnson buried her second trey moments before the intermission to push the Pirates' lead back to six, 39-33, at the half.
Creighton (3-4, 0-1) entered the game ranked 12th in the nation averaging just 12 turnovers per game, but the Jays struggled mightily with Seton Hall's defensive pressure early on, committing seven turnovers before the first media timeout, the last of which was snagged by Daisha Simmons, her third steal of the game, leading to an easy two in transition to make it 17-11.
The Jays ended up committing 19 team turnovers, leading to 19 points for The Hall.
One of the most potent 3-point shooting team in the nation averaging 10.0 3-pointers per game, Creighton shot just 2-of-8 from downtown in the first half and it was Seton Hall using the 3-pointer to its advantage, and not the players the Pirates had come to expect to get hot from downtown.
Bra'Shey Ali (Plainfield, N.J.) was good from deep at 12:12 to make it 20-15, and Ka-Deidre Simmons hit all three of her triples in the first half, the second of which made it 34-24 approaching the four-minute mark.
Creighton pulled within two points early in the second half, making it 44-42 as Marissa Janning pulled up for two, but Seton Hall responded with a 19-4 run over the next 6:38, effectively putting the game out of reach. The 3-pointers kept falling for Johnson, who hit her third to make it 49-42, and Ka-Deidre Simmons capped off a spurt of seven unanswered for The Hall by driving to the rim at 15:37.
Daisha Simmons converted a 3-point play at 13:08 to push the Seton Hall advantage back to double digits, 56-46, a crucial play that spurred a 10-0 Seton Hall run. Two possessions later, Johnson knocked down her fourth trey and with the momentum shifted fully in SHU's favor Daisha Simmons came away with her sixth steal on the ensuing Creighton possession, coasting to the rim for two to make it 61-46.
Seton Hall's lead would stay in double figures until the final moments of the game when Creighton made one final push that ultimately came up short despite Seton Hall shooting just 2-for-9 from the free-throw line over the final 1:20 of the game. The Jays would cut the Seton Hall lead down to four, 78-74, with 19 seconds remaining, but Seton Hall hunkered down defensively and held Creighton to 0-for-4 shooting in the final minute of the game.
Tabatha Richardson-Smith (Bay City, Texas) also scored in double figures for SHU, finishing with 10 points. Alexis Akin-Otiko led Creighton with 22 points on 8-of-12 shooting. Janning recorded a double-double but was well below her 18.2 ppg scoring average, finishing with 13 points and 12 rebounds; she shot just 5-for-13 from the field and hit only one shot from downtown.
Seton Hall continues a run of four games in seven days this Friday night when it heads across the Hudson River to face the defending Atlantic-10 champion Fordham Rams. Tipoff is scheduled for 7 p.m.
